Santa Cruz Journals
Sunday, February 15
I took a boat from San Pedro to Santa Cruz and wow, what a difference. It is so laid back here, there is none of the crap you have to deal with that there was in San Pedro. No hippies, do people constantly bugging you about buying this or that, no vehicles, and very nice people here. San Pedro was nice, but bongos from 2am to 4 am get old after a while. Last night like 50 locals came down to the intersection where my hotel was and partied till like 4, it was annoying and a bit scary. They were extremely loud with smashing beer bottles and fighting. So glad to be away from that! I’m staying at probably the nicest place I’ve ever stayed at and it only costs like 25 bucks a night which is expensive by Guatemala standards, but includes breakfast. I have my own cabin up on this hillside with the most incredible view! It’s quite a hike to get up to it, but is worth it. I wish I could post some pictures, but they are very limited on bandwidth because they have to use satellite. They just got internet here 5 months ago! I think I will stay here for 5 nights and then maybe go to Antigua or Xela for a bit. That night I opted not to eat at the hotel and the only place I found that would make me anything was a place that nobody was in. This place had beautiful gardens and patios, but for some reason there wasn’t anybody there. The owner was there and she did make me a very good burrito con pollo. After that went back and watched This is Spinal Tap.
Monday, February 16
Still in Santa Cruz and today I met a dude named Mike who is an organic farmer in Minnesota and we decided to take a hike to another village named San Marcos. It was a beautiful hike up through the mountains and we went through 2 other small villages on the way there. It took us 2.5 hours to get there and we had lunch at a cool place called Moon Fish. San Marcos is a unique village that has lots of places to meditate, do yoga, and study weird astral stuff. Kinda weird people there, but they were all very relaxed. We went to the dock to take a boat back and when the boat came to pick up everybody, the captain and his first mate got off the boat and just left all of us sitting in the boat tied up to the dock. Turns out they just went and sat on a bench and shared a joint. They came back and we had a nice ride back to Santa Cruz. that night had dinner with everyone else at the hotel and it was a very good meal. The we watched Seven Pounds, I had the movie on my computer, so I gave it to them and they gave me a free beer. Was a strange night to watch the movie which I will talk about later.
Tuesday, February 17
Today I did nothing, but mike and I did skip out of the hotel dinner because he wanted to go somewhere to get a Rob Roy. We went to this place in the middle of nowhere on the lake to get it. While we were drinking it he told me that his father had died 5 years yesterday and the Rob Roy was his father’s drink. He told me that his father donated organs to 10 different people when he died. I was thinking holy shit, it’s only the first date, that’s pretty heavy. We then had a fabulous meal and he walked me home with his flashlight. We watched The Yes Men at the hotel tonight; it was a very interesting mockumentary.
Wednesday, February 18
Today went kayaking with Mike. We went out to the middle of the lake and
along the shore a little over 2 villages over.
On the way back I found a really cool small cliff to jump off of and
that was the only time I swam in lake Atitlan.
It was cold. Kayaking was fun and
after I had lunch and packed to go home.
When checking out I didn’t have enough money , so was going to pay by
credit card,, but they charge 10% to use a credit card. They told me to just mail them a check. WTF? I
questioned how they would trust me to just mail them a check and they told me
that they have my email, so they could just email me for it. Whatever.
After I checked out, Mike and I went to Panajachel, which is the largest
town on the lake. It is very interesting
because there are streets and streets of people selling the exact same thing
and tourist agencies selling the exact same shuttles. We ate dinner at this Italian place and
across the street there was this girl, who was manning a store of weavings and
clothing, that didn’t sell a thing for the over 2 hours that we were
there. On the way out I had to go buy
something from her, so I bought a little doll for Madeline that she wanted 15Q
for, but I paid her 10Q. Stayed at
Larry’s Place which was pretty good with warm shower.
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